day 2 of malta

Today began early for me at 5am. I was able to get ready very quickly and get a taxi at 5:45 to get me to the HRC at 6am to meet "Ludvig" who I was working with today. He was friendly and helpful as most of the people I have met on this trip have been.

I was extremely thankful that we were not only shooting memo that was at eye level, but that the glass cases could be removed, as well as the memo actually could be taken off the wall! This would make things MUCH easier. With 10 items to shoot, I don't know if we would have finished it all in time otherwise.

We moved quickly despite my batteries for my flashes running out of juice. Ludvig was awesome though and went to the store to get me some extras. They also kept me supplied with plenty of coffee, easily the best i've had in Europe so far. Europe claims to drink a lot of coffee, but i have yet to see any evidence that they have ever even seen a real mug. They usually drink from doll sized teacups, sipping on bitter coffe. It's strange.

Anyway we managed to move quickly through a lot of different things, 4 guitars, some shoes, etc. I can't seem to care at all that I am holding a guitar from a famous musician worth thousands of dollars. They really just look like regular dusty old guitars.

We finished just in time to open the restaurant. I ate some lunch there and then came back to my hotel and worked for a while on some things. I went for a walk on the "beach" in the afternoon to scout potential photo spots for later that night. The beach is very strange, I want to say it is volcanic rock, but I'm not sure. Either way its incredibly sharp and very difficult to walk on, full of jagged holes and sharp points. The weather was nicer today, a little warmer and less windy.

I headed back to the beach around sunset for some pictures if possible. I found a spot i thought would work, and tried to get down there as best I could. The surf and slippery rocks kept me from getting very far, but I tried out a few pictures from that location. The waves were unpredictable, and a few times they splashed me pretty decently. Within a few minutes, I saw a wave coming that seemed larger than the others, and at the last minute I grabbed the camera so it wouldn't get wet, but my legs and feet got pretty good and soaked.

I moved around a few times to various parts of the beach to get some different perspectives. Taking these kind of photos is difficult for many reasons, but one of them is that unless you already have your location completely planned out, its hard to know how it will turn out. The other difficult part is that you can't control the elements. Some days you'll get lucky, others you won't.

Here's a few that I got tonight.



Tomorrow I fly to Barcelona.

John